


By the Book and By the Heart

by Capucine



Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: Adulthood, Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Human, F/M, Figuring out College, Fluff, Fluff and Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Abuse, POV Multiple, Series, Sweet
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-01-06
Updated: 2016-01-06
Packaged: 2018-05-12 04:24:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,290
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5652352
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Capucine/pseuds/Capucine
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>College is not an easy time for almost anyone--but there are certainly moments that make it worth it.</p>
<p>People you meet.</p>
<p>Achievements you make.</p>
<p>Things you discover about yourself.</p>
<p>And the little independences and steps away from what restricted you or defined you as a child. It's not all flowers and glory--but it is change. And change can be wonderful.</p>
<p>A series about Hetalia characters in college, starting with Canada and Ukraine.</p>
            </blockquote>





	By the Book and By the Heart

**Author's Note:**

> I made this for a friend, but I think I'll probably continue on with it. :)

Katya had come from a poor part of Ukraine—of which there were wide swathes, in all honesty. She told him she came from the city, where bread was bad and the milk came powdered. 

Matthew had been glad to have her as a next-door-neighbor—she seemed quite excited to be in a dorm, even to be sharing with a girl from Vietnam. Linh didn't talk much, but both of them communicated in English quite well.

It had been about a week into the semester, in the co-ed dorm, that Katya had finally told Matthew she had no idea how to use her food plan card and she had been essentially leeching off of Linh—while paying for it whatever way she could, but she still considered it leeching. And she had been embarrassed to ask for help.

Matthew had smiled—she really was embarrassed, and she didn't deserve annoyance or a gasp of 'How did you not figure this out??' and he wanted to be kind to her. He couldn't quit explain why, in some ways, but when she turned those beautiful blue eyes on him, full of just this deep empathy for all around her, he wanted to know her. And today, that meant showing her how to get food.

“Okay. I'll show you. Let's go to the cafeteria.”

They trouped to the cafeteria—a sort of small thing in the center of their enormous dorm. Katya kept about a hand's width of space between the two of them, as if afraid of losing him should she stray further.

“Okay,” Matthew said, taking out his card. He'd needed a couple things anyway, and he could pick them up while showing Katya. “See the strip here? You know how credit cards work, right?”

Katya had reddened a little. “You...stick it in the machine?”

“Well...some, you do. Here. This kind, you swipe,” Matthew said, mildly going through the motions. He swiped it, and pulled up his account on the fingerprint-smudged screen. “See? This tells me my balance. I know how much I can spend this week on food.”

“...that's a lot.”

He turned to look at Katya, and her eyes were wide with shock. He remembered that she hadn't come from quite so much as him, and he promised, “It's normal. Food prices at college are kind of high—but yours is covered by your scholarship, right? So, you probably have the same amount, and it's fine.”

Katya nodded. He exited, and then she swiped her card—yes, she had the same amount.

She seemed a little astounded. “This much? This isn't a mistake?”

Matthew nodded. “No mistake, I promise. Come on, let's get some food, okay?”

Katya had started out very modestly—some hard-boiled eggs, some big, unsweetened yogurt containers—but had been prodded by Matthew into buying things she really needed and wanted.

She had filled a grocery basket by the time she was done. Bread, including raisin bread, spreadable butter stuff, some jerky, a few frozen meals, including pizza, some microwaveable containers of soup, so on and so forth—and a half gallon of milk.

It was this last one she was clearly squirming over.

However, she didn't protest as Matthew showed her how to buy it—and she paid for it, a sizable chunk left over.

She grasped the grocery bags tightly in fists, following after Matthew as he led the way back to her dorm.

“So, you know, now you don't have to keep eating Linh's rice,” Matthew said with a smile. It wasn't that all the Vietnamese students ate rice; it was that Linh was particularly ascetic and found rice to be an excellent source of carbs for her mixed martial arts training—and a familiar piece of home, Matthew guessed.

“Yes,” Katya said faintly.

“And you can enjoy some snacks during studying and stuff without feeling guilty about it,” Matthew added, smiling back at her.

“Yes,” Katya responded, just as faintly. And this time, Matthew looked directly at her, taking in her slightly pale face and the way her hands were trembling as she held on to the grocery bags.

“Hey,” Matthew said, a bit softly, “Are you okay?”

“This is...” Katya's head ducked down, and she said, clearly embarrassed, “This is too much. I have to...I can't have all this. It costs too much.”

There was something else there, Matthew felt like—something beyond coming from a poor area. But he just nodded, as a sign he understood what she meant, but he said, “Katya, you're allowed to eat, and eat well. The Uni gave you that money so you could eat—and not just subsist. Right?”

She pressed her lips together. “Dido would say I am a pig. He would say it is piggish and selfish.” 

It was a bit baffling to Matthew—but then, it sort of clicked. That familiar feeling. The one he got when his father had forbidden all contact with the errant brother, the prodigal son who had yet to return. When he'd ranted and raved about Alfred and restricted Matthew's freedoms to prevent another such escape.

No cell phone til he was an adult, despite being able to afford it. Heavily filtered and monitored internet use. Every account had its usernames and passwords in his father's little green book labelled 'addresses'.

He'd escaped at school—they had computer lab, and he'd had his precious time when he was supposed to be learning how to use Microsoft Word and stuff to interact with his online world. To look up things that the computer at home blocked (such as wars. Such as the dark side of what was happening in the world. Such as anything that didn't contain his father's keywords.), to talk to people who just got it.

Matthew reached out gently to Katya, touching her shoulder—feather-light. “Katya. Your brain needs food, right? It needs nourishment.”

“Yes...” Katya looked like this was hard to admit—and it wouldn't be in any other circumstance, given that she was starting a degree in biology, seemingly with a focus in gnotobiology (the study of life with controlled presence of 'germs'). One had to understand such things to be able to get such a degree, in any case.

“And you have a lot to learn—that's the whole point of being here. Your brain's working overtime,” Matthew continued.

Katya nodded, having to agree that that was the truth.

“So, it follows that you need to nourish it, and nourish it well—or it's far more of a waste than a gallon of milk could ever be, right?” Matthew felt he'd driven his point home when he saw Katya stiffen a little.

She pressed her lips together again, and then sighed. “You are right.”

He knew where she was coming from, though he'd gone in the opposite direction—he'd become a glutton for the internet his first semester here. It nearly ruined him. She had started in the latter half of freshman year here, after telecommunicating for her first semester from an old computer in Ukraine. She hadn't seen him nearly ruin it all.

But he just smiled. “Come on, then. Let's get back to your dorm and get that brain fed.” Oh god, he sounded like such a dork--

But she gave a small smile too. “All right.”

And the look on her face when she tried fresh, unpowdered milk for the first time in years was just the most endearing thing that Matthew had ever seen.

He didn't know yet what it was, but he wanted to be around Katya. And so long as she wanted him to be, that was what he resolved to do.

It wasn't often you met another pea from your pod.

**Author's Note:**

> That's emotional abuse, if you were wondering--controlling parenting like that. I hope y'all liked it! It's been a while since I've written something like this.


End file.
